Happiest Musician Minisode: Boldness

A story of a time I failed in boldness, failed to give my project the chance it deserved. A cautionary tale for you! And an invitation.

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Theme music by DreamVance.

I help people to lean into their creative careers and start or grow their income streams. You can read more or hop onto a discovery call from my website.  

I'm your host, Jennet Ingle. I love you all. Stay safe out there!

Your portfolio career is YOURS to design. If you are seeking inspiration, grab the first chapter of my book for FREE at the link below! You are allowed to thrive, and your artistry MATTERS.

https://jennetingle.kit.com/c6e4009529

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Janet Engel.

(00:01):
I'm the happiest musician.
If you're watching this onYouTube or if you're listening
to this on the CrushingClassical podcast, make sure you
are subscribed.
Thank you so much.
I want to talk about a timewhere I failed in boldness.

UNKNOWN (00:26):
So

SPEAKER_00 (00:26):
You're listening to Crushing Classical, how to
thrive in your creative career.
I'm your host, Janet Ingle,oboist, entrepreneur, speaker,
author, and business andcreative coach for musicians.
I believe that musicians arebrilliant, motivated, highly

(00:50):
trained professionals, and thatin the 21st century, being
merely talented is not enough.
In this podcast, I celebrate themusicians and creatives who are
building their own careers andlives within our industry.
My guests are amazing, and youare too.
You are allowed to thrive, andyour artistry matters.

(01:17):
I have failed to give myprojects the best chance for
success, and the mediocrereception I have sometimes
gotten on my projects is areferendum on that failure of
boldness.
So here's my story.
During the final year, or what Ilater realized was the final
year of my chamber music series,Musicians for Michiana, I hosted

(01:39):
and produced a fundraiserconcert.
I was excited.
This was the first fundraiser wehad done.
I booked a venue that was one ofmy favorites in town.
It was a little jazz club thathad its own audience base.
Bonus, bonus.
I hired a guest performer whom Ideeply believed in and who also
happened to be family, whichmade the ensuing failure feel

(02:00):
even worse to me.
I purchased and procured a lotof relatively fancy food, and I
paid a lot of attention to thecolors of the napkins.
I made programs, and I madeposters, and I prepared my
remarks for the actual event.
I was really excited about thisevent.

(02:20):
But I was also busy.
I had other concerts to give,other things to think about.
I had like a three-year-oldchild at home.
I don't remember at this momentexactly what all of the factors
were that went into this, but Ivividly remember on the day of
the event, I was talking with myco-hosts and we realized that

(02:42):
none of us had done any morethan the barest minimum of
promotion.
Thank you for watching.

(03:09):
Maybe I called the newspaper,but I didn't follow up, and I
did not have a feature article,and there was not a visible
presence for this concert in ourlocal media.
So the audience for this artist,who had driven in from two hours
away, was beyond small.
It was me, it was my sister, mytwo co-hosts, and two other

(03:34):
people, both personal friends.
The artists gave a great show.
We loved it.
We applauded.
And it sounded like the tinysmattering of humans that it
was.
We raised maybe$75 on the wholeevent, which was an overall loss
of around$500.

(03:56):
For a tiny series witheffectively no budget, this was
really a death knell.
My energy really petered outafter that.
Maybe my energy had reallypetered out before it.
Really, I think I already hadone foot out the door and I
didn't even know it.
But what I know now is that noamount of external work, of

(04:22):
external promotion and effort istoo much if you actually want
people to see your vision, ifyou actually want to spur them
to action.
in order for people to leavetheir houses and attend an event
you have to light them up theyhave to hear about it many many
times they have to know it'shappening they have to mark

(04:42):
their calendars they have toknow me and believe in me they
have to have a sense about theartist who is coming and how
much they're going to enjoy itthey have to have a stake in
what is happening if you wantpeople to spend money if you
want them to act it is your jobAnd so in this case, it was my

(05:03):
job, and I completely failed inmy job.
Now, I mean, I can easily pointto the tactical slips that were
made, the way we relied on asmall and unengaged social media
audience and a tiny email listinstead of doing a lot more
personal reach-outs, instead ofleveraging the larger lists of

(05:26):
the venue and of my co-host'svenue.
the way we neglected toadvertise in the paper, on the
radio, on television.
But like the bigger picture, thebigger message is that I didn't
show up for my own program.
Visibility takes work.
And the work is not the work ofmaking sure that the cake is

(05:50):
beautifully decorated or thateverything is in the nicest font
on the website.
We...
Musicians can spend a lot oftime polishing the details,
making sure that everything isjust so, that our trills and
resolutions are beyond reproach.

(06:14):
But that is not the thing thatmakes the audience come.
And that is not the thing thatmakes people pay attention.
And that is not the thing thatmakes people love music.
hearing your content, seeingyour content, learning from you,
paying you.
The precision of your trills andthe correctness of your playing,

(06:38):
that is a prerequisite.
We have to do those things.
The basic competence of yourwebsite, sure, it all has to be
there.
But the actual work is the scarypart.
It is the visibility.
It is Raising your hand,standing up and saying, hi, I'm
doing a thing.
Let me tell you about it.

(06:59):
I'm doing a thing.
Let me show it to you.
Here, I made this.
Would you like to see it?
That is the work.
That is the hard work.
That is the visibility work.
And the other thing I want tosay here is that whether or not
I actually leave my house andattend something that somebody

(07:21):
is doing in my town and attend alive music event or show up for
the webinar that someone isdelivering.
Whether or not I actually go, itmeans something to me to see
that people are doing it.
It gives me something to say tothem when I see them.
Like, oh my gosh, I saw that youdid a thing.
I'm so sorry I wasn't there.

(07:41):
Tell me how it went.
It shows me that In mycommunity, whether that is my
online musical community or mylocal South Bend, Indiana
musical community, it lets meknow that there is action, that
there is activity, that this isa thriving community, which is
doing things and making thingshappen.

(08:04):
And that in and of itself isinspiring.
I want to be inspired toactually come to the concert.
And I want to be inspired byknowing that someone is having a
concert or that someone isoffering a program or that
someone is expanding what ispossible for themselves.

(08:24):
And we only know it if you tellus.
I have failed in boldnessbefore, and I don't want you to
fail in boldness.
What are you building?
What are you working on?
What are you great at?
Let us know.
Of course, I want you to let meknow what you think of this

(08:48):
episode.
I want you to reach out to me.
I want to see in the YouTubecomments or in the Crushing
Classical reviews or in my ownpersonal email how you are
reacting to this.
And I want you to considerjoining my fall program, the
Happiest Musician VisibilityLab.

(09:08):
You can find me and all of myinformation at jennetingle.com.
Thank you so much for listening.
Have a great day.